This is my first ramadan. Last week I shot a small feature on one of Abu Dhabi’s neighborhoods, Khalidiya. I wondered its streets from sunrise to and well pass sundown for a few days observing its tempo and character. Unlike with the previous feature from Al Ain, here the city truly quieted down during the day, with everyone who can afford it, sleeping well into the day, hiding from the heat and hungry hours. So the images from the middle of the day capture the friendly laborers, stiff shop keepers, and overheated commuters. Only the early morning and late evening reveled life beyond commerce and mere existence. Then I met a jolly early-morning lady basking in the sunlight while, through the sounds of birds and the smell of trees, hoping to be transported out of the Gulf for just a moment. And much later that day, in a mosque right next to that same park, tightly wrapped in my polyester abaya I zoned out with the sounds of prayer, watching hundreds of men try to transcend the fluorescent light facing the Mecca.
